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Friday

Lethal Injection

Currently, there’s a de-facto moratorium on the death penalty until the Supreme Court decides whether the drug cocktail used for lethal injections is constitutional. Only one person has been executed in Texas since the Supreme court decided to hear the case, and that's because the court refused to stay open past five so that a motion could be filed, even after lawyers called and asked the court for more time becuase their computers had crashed (this was the same day the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case). Now the Harris County District Attorney has decided not to set any more execution dates until the Supreme Court makes a decision (he really doesn't have much of a choice, now). The method of lethal injection now in use has been discontinued by veterinarians, because it is considered unnecessarily cruel, so this is definitely a positive development. The Onion points out, however, that the news isn’t all good.